Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man, Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts
Here is another hot tip on a fascinating set of DVDs… Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts.
Leonard Bernstein was an accomplished composer and conductor, but if you want my opinion, he really stood out as being one of the world's greatest educators. He began a series of televised educational concerts in 1958 called "Young People's Concerts", and systematically educated America's youth about great music for the next 15 years. Bernstein didn't talk down to the kids. Looking at these lectures today as an adult, there's still plenty for me to learn. It distresses me that there's nothing even remotely like this available to kids on television today. It's a crime in fact.
In this clip, Bernstein sums up how America's melting pot of cultures distilled many different kinds of music into quintessentially "American" music. Too often we try to ignore cultural differences and pretend they don't exist. Pointing out the things that are particular to a group of people is seen as "impolite". I prefer to celebrate all of the ethnic cultures around me here in Hollywood- Hispanic, Asian, Black, Middle Eastern- it's all more interesting to me than the plain old white bread people I grew up around. As a cartoonist, the differences between all of us are much more interesting than the similarities. Viva la difference!
Anyway… In this clip, Bernstein turns over his baton to a guest conductor, composer Aaron Copland. Great stuff!
